


Meet Me In The Middle

by sonicsora



Series: The Techopath and Spider [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Twins, Awkward Romance, College, Dating, Dating diasters, Dating is hard, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Gay Harley Keener, Gen, Harley and Peter are Twins, Humor, M/M, Peter Parker is a Mess, Post-Canon, peter parker is a bi disaster
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-27 01:47:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21110681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sonicsora/pseuds/sonicsora
Summary: Given they're both gone to completely different colleges, Peter and MJ mutually agree to try dating around a little. It's college, they're supposed to experiment. Dating included.Only for Peter to discover, he's incredibly terrible at dating. Fuck.





	1. House Party

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TinkerSpark](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TinkerSpark/gifts).

> Written on a whim, cause I love tormenting Peter just a smidgen. Heavily based on an AU I have with TinkerSpark. 
> 
> Basic gist: Peter and Harley are twins. They're both pain in the ass teen heroes. Now young adult heroes going to MIT together. Chaos ensues.

Peter just barely managed to suppress a bodily twinge of pain at the volume of the music as he fumbles to find his date’s hand. Her fingers tangle with his as she yanks him into the house party. Tisha’s voice is nearly lost in the pounding music as they all but rush through the threshold, but Peter can make out a laugh and “C’mon!”

The best he can do is nod somewhat awkwardly as he tries to keep up with her. The toes of his sneakers catch on loose parts of the rug that had been kicked up at some point by the throngs of people who’ve been moving through the house. He can feel the music through his shoes radiating up along his legs. It’s almost too much. The overly warm stale air doesn’t make things any better.

This, isn’t really what he expected a first date to be like. He manages to keep a grip on her hand as they weave through the crowd. They end up in a kitchen, he’s relieved it’s quieter than the rest of the household. He’s glad to lean against one of the kitchen counters as Tisha moves to root through the metal barrel full of ice propped up on a fold-out card table. 

From the sounds of it, it’s full of glass bottles and metal cans. Peter uses the moment to rub at his head a little. He manages a smile when she turns around and hands him a beer. He accepts the bottle, nearly twisting the lid off before remembering that might be a little much. He pretends to struggle instead, Tisha just laughs at the struggle reaching out to take it back out of his hands and use a bottle opener for him. 

“Don’t try to be a strong man, Big P.” She teases with a flash of a grin, a grin with a little too much teeth as she drapes an arm around his shoulders. Her fingertips are cold against his neck and she’s just very close. The sudden contact makes Peter blink a little, he sputters. “I- _uh_, sure! I mean, yes.” 

She laughs again, more at him as she kisses his cheek. “You’re lucky you’re cute, P.” 

“T-thanks?” He’s not sure how to take that, deciding to switch gears conversationally best he can. “Do you know the people throwing this party-? I barely recognize anyone here.” 

“It’s a couple schools mingling.” She answers curling a finger in the fine hairs of Peter’s neck, which doesn’t help Peter relax any. Tisha seems nice, but this is... a lot. “MIT isn’t the biggest school presence here, Pete. You only been to MIT parties so far?” 

“Well, yeah.” He answers with a flash of a nervous smile, not sure how to back off from all the touching. He only sort of knew Tisha from one of their math courses, so this was… weird. He was used to her being fairly casual and eager to learn, this was new. He takes a drink from his beer to have something to do. “I don’t really do parties that often, I’m trying to stay on top of classwork.” 

Tisha snorts a little, she rolls her eyes. “You _are_ a nerd.” She just leans more into him and Peter wonders if it would be rude to crawl onto a wall to escape this much physical contact with someone he barely knew. 

“Well, it is college-“ He starts, before Tisha waves a hand and interrupts him loudly. “It is college, it is a time where we loosen up, nerd boy. Let me loosen you up a little.” She flicks his chin slightly and Peter leans away a little uncertainly. His brow knit together as he blinks back at her. He’s never been flicked in the chin before and he doesn’t really like it. 

“Uh, loosen up how-?” Before Tisha can explain, a few of her friends enter the kitchen, Peter gets that feeling from how loudly they bellow her name. She lets go of him to go hug the two other women and one man with them. The group falls into familiar jokes and conversation, whilst Peter drinks his beer. He's kind of just here at best. 

Eventually, the group migrates out of the kitchen into the louder part of the house. Peter suppresses a grimace since the rest of the house is so overwhelming and his senses are already churring uncomfortably. 

Everyone is shouting in a vague kind of conversation. Peter can actually hear most of what they say, though he can tell from half the responses no one else really catches every word or understands each other. It vaguely reminds him of when Harley dragged him to a club during Pride, only there is a distinct lack of rainbows and actual tangible excitement in the air in the house party. 

Peter has a few vague moments to try and talk to Tisha, but she mostly keeps handing him beers. She jokes loudly at him helping him relax. She makes a point to tell everyone he’s so tense in the loudest way possible. The way the group laughs makes Peter wonder what he walked into. Apparently the face he makes at one of the jokes only reaffirms he needs to 'relax' as she kisses his cheek and nudges the beer into him. 

He gets through beer fourth when he’s pretty satisfied that he’s not really having fun. If he didn’t have his super metabolism he’d definitely be feeling this a lot worse. The beer and music isn’t making his head hurt any less. He feels bad at the idea of just, leaving, but this isn’t really much of a date. Tisha barely talks to him, flittering around from group to group as he tries to follow. Eventually he just kind of finds a spot against a wall to watch the party. He picks out Tisha’s blonde hair and sparkly green top once or twice in passing. He can hear her laughter spike up over the music being played, but it isn't exactly a draw. 

He tries to get her attention from where he’s standing, with very little success. He gives a frustrated noise. He eventually has to _follow_ her again before he can actually catch up. 

She’s leaning against one of the counters in the kitchen, working on another beer as she brightens marginally at the sight of him. “Big P! Having a good time? Getting all social?” 

“Uh, I guess.” Maybe he misunderstood this invite entirely. He wouldn't be surprised if he had. He had only really dated MJ who was very to the point. Tisha was decidedly _not_. MJ would just level a look at him and declare they were going on a date. “I thought we were on a date-?”

“Oh, we are, I just figured- you kinda needed to talk to other people first. You don’t like get out supes often.” She sips at her beer, “After we hang here, we can go to my place. You’ll be all relaxed by then.” 

Peter’s brows furrow together at her assumption, offense creeping along his back. Was he just a charity case for her-? He tries to shake the thought off, not wanting to let it get to him. “I… get out plenty actually. I think I’m going to go home, Tisha. I have a headache and it’s kind of late.”

She squints back at him, “..._Seriously_? What are you an old lady?” 

“No, I’m just kind of- annoyed my date just has been ignoring me the entire time we’ve been here-?” He offers back clearly a little confused. “I’ll see you in class Tisha. Thanks for the invite.” 

He turns and ignores her annoyed call of at his back, “Yeah, whatever, _asshole_!” Peter weaves through the crowd of people, making his way to the front entrance. He walks out onto the porch, relaxing as the cold air hits him. The quiet of the night is almost a relief in contrast to the pounding music he’s been dealing with for the past two and a half hours. 

He ends up just fishing his phone out of his pocket, texting Harley first and foremost before he walks down the front steps of the house onto the sidewalk. He still feels overwhelmed sense wise the entire walk, and kind of just wants a nap. He's going to crash in his dorm room with Harley, and maybe pick at homework after he ate something to soak up the cheap beer.


	2. Ice cream date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time for Harley to show up and cause chaos.

Peter learns very quickly dating in college is, _weird_. 

Some dates are okay, others are just disasters, others are just kind awkward affairs. So far he encountered mostly weird disasters and wasn't thrilled about it. 

And others are interrupted by his brother appearing to wreak havoc, because Harley cannot leave anything well enough alone. Harley has to meddle in some variety, it's just who he is as the older twin. Peter didn't exactly help given he texted Harley at least three times during the date about how he knew more about cars than he ever wanted to. 

“We were having a... _good_ time?” Peter protests, though it comes out as a question instead of a statement as he helps wipe the ice cream off of his brother. Globs of ice cream soak halfway through the napkin but at this point, Peter doesn’t care. His date had grabbed an excessive amount of napkins in passing and left them here when he ran off in a huff. “You know, an okay kind of date...” 

Harley shrugs ever so casually for a man covered in quite a bit of ice cream, he leans an elbow against the surface of the picnic table they've settled at. “Okay? Not exactly a glowing review, bro.” 

“I’m not exactly looking for someone to marry, Harley,” Peter answers with a roll of his eyes, reaching over to grab another wad of napkins from the table. “I’m just- trying this out.” He and MJ talked it over a bunch of times, in person, over text- it was just something they agreed on. Peter was just kind of realizing he wasn't really great at this. MJ probably had _already_ dated like a bunch of not weird people. Peter was trying not to dwell on it too much. 

“He was kind of a dick, Pete.” 

“Yeah, I noticed when he just slammed an ice cream cone on my twin brother.” Peter blows back out, on the verge of rolling his eyes again. After ice cream made contact with Harley, things had devolved into a yelling match. “You didn’t really help things either, Harls.” Harley was great at instigation when the urge struck. It was just one of those days.

“Eh, just pointing out he could improve on _some_ things.” His lips curl into a smirk, the blonde is decidedly too pleased with himself. "He was _alright_ looking, but man, when I walked up you looked ready to backflip into the ocean." 

“Uh-huh.” Peter gave in to a second roll of his eyes, still trying to get his brother vaguely clean. He's resisting his urge to just throw the soggy napkins at Harley to some degree. “_Sure_.” 

“He's not remotely worth your time, Pete.”

Peter slaps a wet napkin down in the growing pile. “Yeah, I know, Harley. This was literally one date. I was going to just not text him back after. He was so boring. He wouldn’t stop talking about his car. Todd is the most boring man in the world.” Now the eye roll was aimed at someone besides Harley, Peter growing more annoyed by the minute. Every little annoyance with the date just springing up now that Harley had prodded at him a little. 

“He reminded me three times not to get ice cream on his interior, but he wanted ice cream? Why did he even want to do this as a date if he was so worried about the car? Was the whole date just about the car?” Peter couldn’t wrap his head around it. "He never mentioned a car before when we talked between classes, but _suddenly_ its all that matters." 

“Real nice of him to dramatically drive away on you too. What if you couldn’t get a ride back to campus?” Harley questions as he stretches out the fabric of his shirt to admire the chocolate and strawberry stains on his shirt. It would wash out eventually. 

Peter’s gaze flicks back up to Harley warily, starting to squint. “You didn’t do anything to his car did you?” 

Harley releases his hold on his shirt casually. “Not yet.” 

“_Harley_.” 

“Look, I’m just covering my bases here.” Harley manages another ever so casual shrug and Peter just resists his urge to shove his twin off the bench part of the picnic table.


	3. Pasta and destruction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More Harley shenanigans because they're doofy brothers.

He’s half drooping from where he’s perched on his dorm room wall, when the door is thrown open dramatically. “Pete!” Peter startles, giving a very dignified squeak of surprise as he slides down the wall somewhat at his brother’s dramatic entrance. Harley throws the door closed as dramatically as he opened it. The R.A will probably be on their ass later about it. 

“What-?” He manages as he blinks more awake. 

“I got a date!” 

Peter blinks a little rubbing at his eyes, “...A date?” Given Harley was kind of sort of dating Ned, long distance at least- his twin having a date was a little _jarring_.

“Yeah,” Harley answers easily, his lips curling into a pleased grin. He looked like a particularly pleased cat that had gotten its way. “_Free food_.” 

Peter rolls his eyes a little, of course. “God, Harley. Seriously?” 

“I talked the guy into a nicer place nearby. Maybe I’ll bring you some leftovers.” The blonde man offers casually as he moves to kick off his shoes. The sneakers land with a thud in the growing heap of Harley’s clothing on his side of the dorm room. Peter has given up trying to manage it, when laundry day came he knew they’d get to see the floor. They'll get to discover what the color of the rug is again. Harley is betting red, Peter is sure its blue. 

“You won’t, and I will not be surprised.” Peter leans a hand into his cheek, just watching his twin for the moment as Harley flops back on his bed. “What’s his name?”

Harley just rolls over, dumping his backpack out carelessly. Shifting through things in an attempt to stall. “Harry. Pretty sure its Harry.” 

Peter pauses for a moment, maybe he’s jumping to conclusions here, but he has to ask. “Please tell me it’s not Harry Rodrigez?” 

Harley finally looks back up at his twin, starting to frown. “...He was one of those idiots who asked you out in chem?” Now recognition was starting to dawn and it was probably not a good thing.

The brunette huffs somewhat back. “He grabbed my ass while asking me out, so I declined.” 

“...So a free meal and I get to destroy him. Good.” 

“Ugh, _Harley_!” 

“A little destruction goes great with pasta, Pete.” The look on Harley’s face meant something terrible was going to happen. Peter just groaned again as he slunk more down the wall. “Can you at least _not_ destroy his life?” 

“I can’t make any promises.” 

Well, that wasn't foreboding or anything.


End file.
